A video featuring an off-duty Kansas City, Missouri firefighter wrestling with another man outside a gas station has gone viral. However, the reason why the video went viral is not fully expressed within the 30-second-long video. The key here is how the fight actually came to an end. A woman wound up shooting and killing the firefighter. She was released from custody without any charges. The other man involved in the fight, however, is currently in jail.
To fully understand the situation, it is essential to get the full context. A man enters an Independence, Missouri gas station to buy a particular brand of cigars. The clerk informs the man that they don’t have that specific item. The man becomes enraged at the clerk and begins to berate her. The clerk eventually tells the man to leave, but he refuses. An off-duty firefighter is also in the gas station and joins the clerk in telling the man to leave. He still refuses. This exchange causes the firefighter and the man requesting cigars to get into an altercation that spills outside of the store.
The man goes to his parked car where his girlfriend and kids are and retrieves his gun. The firefighter wrestles with the man over the gun. The man who became irate in the store is losing this fight, badly. Eyewitnesses say the scuffle went on for at least ten minutes. The firefighter had the other man in a rear naked choke and never relinquished the dominant “top” position in the fight. Eventually, the man’s girlfriend exits the vehicle in an attempt to break up the fight. Shortly thereafter, the gun falls to the ground (according to eyewitness statements).
The girlfriend picks up the weapon and continues to try and break up the fight. She repeatedly warns the firefighter to get up. It is not clear if the firefighter can see that the gun is no longer in the man’s possession and that his girlfriend has it. In the short viral video, however, it is clear that she has it and that he looked square in her direction. The girlfriend eventually shoots the firefighter one time, in the back. He gets up and walks back to the store where he collapses and dies.
The boyfriend is in jail for a gun charge as he is a convicted felon without the right to bear arms. However, he does not face a murder charge because there does not appear to be enough evidence to implicate him in such a thing. The woman faces no charges because she could easily argue in court that all she saw was her boyfriend getting beaten nearly to death and she intervened to save his life, which is textbook self-defense.
SOURCES:
Why woman who shot Kansas City firefighter claims self defense | The Kansas City Star
Off-duty firefighter wrestles felon who pulled gun on him. Felon’s girlfriend grabs dropped gun, fatally shoots firefighter — and she’s facing no criminal charges. – TheBlaze
Off-duty KC firefighter killed in Independence shooting
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